Apparently, New Jersey is the new hotbed of copyright infringement lawsuits. Jay McDaniel has filed a number of lawsuits against tens of thousands of people for a number of clients. Two of the suits aim to halt the illicit distribution of “Dark Adrenaline,” the most recent album by the Italian band Lacuna Coil. The suits collectively target 3,136 John Doe defendants. Four similar civil complaints accuse another 4,327 unnamed file swappers of illegally distributing “Dystopia,” the 2011 album by Iced Earth, a Florida-based metal band on the Century Media label.

McDaniel also represents a German film company, Amselfilm Productions GmbH & CO. KG of Berlin, which holds the rights to the 2011 Russian movie “Bablo,” or “The Dough. Three suits, filed in late June at the same time as the six Century Media cases, contend 4,654 people shared pirated copies of the film. McDaniel has also represented German client, Baseprotect UG Ltd in a previous lawsuit.

The most interesting thing about the most recent lawsuits filed by Century Media and Amselfilm is that the complaints name not only the John Doe parties as defendants, but also a specific swarm that was allegedly detected on various dates sharing a specific copy of a pirated work.

Since I am involved in this case, I’m not going to provide any commentary here except to say that if you are facing any copyright infringement lawsuits in New Jersey or any other state, call me anytime to discuss.